Object and Face Recognition : A Special Issue of "Visual Cognition"

This special issue presents a series of papers which show how experimental, neuropsychological and computational techniques are clarifying the mechanisms involved in processing and recognizing objects and faces, and the relationship between face recognition of other kinds of visual object. The volume starts with a selective overview of the literature on object and face recognition, focusing on the relationship between the two. The second paper reinforces the suggestion that there may be networks dedicated to faces distinct from those used for other objects by describing a patient with object agnosia but without alexia or prosopagnosia. This separation of recognition systems is also suggested by the masking effects reported in the third paper, where recognition of faces is disrupted by face or face-like masks more than by other visual objects of roughly similar size and shape. Two papers on the development of face processing, and factors influencing the facial caricature effect, provide evidence about the nature of such processing. Two further papers illustrate the insights that may be attained in the domain of visual recognition using connectionist modelling and brain imaging techniques to explore the computational and neurological basis of face recognition.